Course Convenor

Prof. S. K. Shukla

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology (BHU)
Varanasi, U. P., 221005
 Most standards for computation of boiler efficiency,
including IS 8753 and BS845 are designed for spot
measurement of boiler efficiency. Invariably, all these
standards do not include blow down as a loss in the
efficiency determination process.
Basically Boiler efficiency can be tested by the following
methods:
1) The Direct Method: Where the energy gain of the
working fluid (water and steam) is compared with the
energy content of the boiler fuel.
2) The Indirect Method: Where the efficiency is the
difference between the losses and the energy input.
 Step . 1 Find theoretical air requirement
 Step. 2 To find theoretical CO2
 Step . 3 To find Excess air supplied
 Step . 4 to find actual mass of air supplied
 Step . 5 to find actual mass of dry flue gas
 Step . 6 to find all losses
1. % Heat loss in dry flue gas
2. % Heat loss due to formation of water from H2 in fuel (L2)
3. % Heat loss due to moisture in fuel (L3)
4. % Heat loss due to moisture in air (L4)
5. % Heat loss due to partial conversion of C to CO (L5)
6. % Heat loss due to radiation and convection (L6)
7. % Heat loss due to unburnt in fly ash (L7)
8. % Heat loss due to unburnt in bottom ash (L8)
 The following are the data collected for a boiler using coal as
the fuel. Find out the boiler efficiency by indirect method.
From combustion equations of fuel constituents (percentage basis) such as C, H, O
and S as described earlier the total oxygen required per kg of fuel for complete
combustion can be given as;

𝟏
𝟐𝟑

𝟏
𝟐𝟑
 There exists a large variety of the boilers in terms of their
arrangement, efficiency, steam generation rate, steam condition,
type of fuel used, firing method and draught etc.
 For comparing one boiler with other any of the above parameters
can not be considered as they are interdependent.
 Therefore, for comparing the capacity of boilers working at
different pressures, temperatures, different final steam
conditions etc. a parameter called “Equivalent Evaporation” is
used.

 Whereas, Boiler efficiency quantifies, how effectively the heat

is being used in boiler. Thus it could be given by the ratio of heat
actually used for steam generation and total heat available due to
combustion of fuel in boiler.
 Equivalent evaporation actually indicates the amount of
heat added in the boiler for steam generation.
 Equivalent evaporation refers to the quantity of dry
saturated steam generated per unit time from feed
water at 100C to steam at 100C at the saturation
pressure corresponding to 100C.
 Sometimes it is also called equivalent evaporation from
and at 100C.
 Thus, mathematically it could be given as,

Boiler generating steam at ‘m’ kg/hr at some pressure ‘p’ and temperature
‘T’, h is enthalpy of final steam generated and hw is enthalpy of feed
water
 Q. A boiler is being tested for 24 hours and
during this trial steam at average pressure of
10 bar, dry saturated is produced from 15
ton of water consuming 1.5 ton of coal.
Composition of coal has 3% moisture and 4%
ash. Feed water is added at 35°C. Determine,

(i) the boiler efficiency,

(ii) the equivalent evaporation per kg of dry
coal, and
(iii) the equivalent evaporation per kg of
combustible present in coal.
here mf is the mass of fuel burnt per hour, C.V. is calorific value of fuel used (kcal/kg), m is mass
of steam generated per hour and enthalpies h and hw are that of final steam and feed water, kcal/kg.
 Downcomer and Riser are connected with the boiler
drum where steam and liquid phase of water
separation takes place.
 Riser installed all around the four walls of the furnace
act as a cooling tubes or water wall and carry away
the heat from the furnace.
 If the boiler pressure is greater than 30 bar, the
downcomers are placed outside the furnace so as to
secure more density difference for natural circulation.
 However, if pressure less than 30 bar, both are placed
inside, with the risers installed in the hotter zone.
 The tubes which are heated more will act as risers
and the tubes which are heated less act as down
comers.
 If the pressure of the steam exceeds 18 bar, the
density difference becomes so small, then forced
circulation is used where a pump circulates
saturated water through all the risers around the
furnace walls.

 Circulation ratio = (Flow rate of saturated water in

downcomers/ Flow rate of steam released from the
drum)

 If any moisture carried with steam then it affect the

performance of superheater.
 If any vapor bubble flow along with saturated water
from the drum to downcomers then it will impede
the circulation.
 The drum has to secure moisture free steam going
to the superheater and bubble free water going to
the downcomer.
 Separation of steam from steam-water
mixture discharged by the riser is one
of the important functions of the
drum.
 At low pressure, gravity separation is
used.
 At higher pressure, density difference
decreases and so the separating force
also decreases. Hence mechanical
separator is used like baffles, screens
and cyclones which are housed inside
the drum for separation of steam-
water mixture are known as drum
internals.
 In mechanical separators Baffle plats
are primary separators.
Gravity separator Baffle plates
 Boiler mounting are the fitting arrangement,
which are mounted on the boiler to make it
proper and safe use.

1. Water level indicator

2. Pressure gauge

3. Safety valves

4. Stop valve

5. Blow off cock

6. Feed check valve

7. Fusible plug
 These are auxiliary components required for
steam boilers for their proper operation and
for the increase of their efficiency. Commonly
used boiler accessories are

1. Feed pump
2. Economizer
3. Air preheater
4. Superheater
5. Steam separator
6. Steam trap
 Mechanical draught is produced by fans.

❑ Forced Draught: It is installed at inlet to the

air preheater.
 They handle cold air so they have less
maintenance problems.
 Because of less specific volume of air it
requires less power to handle it.
 Overall their operating and capital cost is
lower.
 For good reliability two parallel operating
fans are used.
❑ Induced Draught: It is located at the foot of
stack and handle hot combustion gases.
 Its power requirement is greater than FD fans.
 Also, they must cope with corrosive
combustion product and fly ash.
 Induced draught fans are rarely used alone.
 Power input for ID fan

o wf=fuel burning rate

o A/F= air-fuel ratio
o Vg= specific volume of flue gases
o △pID=pressure head
 When both forced and induced draught fan
used in steam generator, the FD fan push
atmospheric air through the air preheater,
damper, various air ducts and burners into
the furnace.
 ID fan sucks out the flue gases through the
heat transfer surfaces in the Superheater,
Reheater, Economiser, gas side air preheater
and dust collectors and discharge into the
stack.
 Modern boiler are mostly designed with
balanced draught.
 It means pressure inside the furnace is
approximately atmospheric.
 Sometimes it is maintained at negative gauge
pressure.
 A typical large power plant 600 MWe may
require two 1320kW forced draught fans and
two 3000 kW induced fans.
 FD and ID fans operate continuously for long
periods, up to 1 or 2 years. So these must be
well designed , ruggedly constructed, well
balanced and efficient.
 There are two methods of controlling the
output of fans.
i. Damper control
ii. Variable speed control

Damper control:
▪ A damper (butterfly valve) is used to control
the flow of gas by regulating the flow area
according to load.
▪ Dampers are usually put on the outlet side
of fan.
Variable speed control:
▪ It has advantage of less power consumption
and is the most efficient method for fan
control.
▪ Major disadvantage of variable speed control
is the higher capital costs than damper
control.

Two other type of fan used in plants-

Primary air fan and gas circulation fan
• Primary air fan supply air to dry and transport
pulverised coal to the furnace.
 Gas recirculation fans are used to recirculate
gas from a point between the economiser and
air preheater back to the bottom of the
furnace as part of steam temperature control
system.
 Fans are very noisy hence these are kept
inside a thick masonry acoustical enclosures
or equipped with silencers or both.
Pressure at bottom of chimney = Pressure at
outlet + Pressure due to hot gas column
 A boiler has chimney of 30 m height to
produce natural draught of 12 mm of water
column. Ambient air temperature is 27C and
boiler furnace requires 20 kg of air per kg of
fuel for complete combustion. Determine
minimum temperature of burnt gases leaving
chimney.
 A boiler may have waste gases leaving the installation
when artificial draught is used at 150C. The natural
draught chimney is of 60 m height. The hot gases
within chimney are at temperature of 300C and air
requirement is 19 kg per kg of fuel burnt. The
atmospheric air is at 17C temperature and mean
specific heat of hot gases is 1.0032 kJ/kg K. The
calorific value of fuel burnt is 32604 kJ/kg.
 Determine
 (i) the draught produced in mm of water
 (ii) the efficiency of chimney
 (iii) the extra heat carried away by flue gases per kg
of fuel.
 Condenser
 Cooling Tower

➢ A large heat exchanger called as Condenser

designed to cool exhaust steam from a turbine
below the boiling point so that it can be returned
to the heat source as water.
➢ The condenser is a closed vessel generally
maintained in a vacuum, and cold fluid is
circulated to pick heat from steam to cause its
condensation.
Condenser unit with supporting
pumps
  What is the effect of air leakage inside
condenser?
 Air leakage causes the reduction in work done per kg of steam as it
increases the back pressure. Also the quantity of water required
for condensation of steam is increased due to lowering of partial
pressure of steam due to pressure of air. At low pressure the
latent heat of steam to be released is more than at higher pressure.
 Air (having lower conductivity)when present between water and
steam hampers the heat exchange and also takes away a portion of
heat. Because of this reason also the more quantity of cooling water
is required.
 Hence, leakage of air reduces the condenser efficiency and auxiliary
devices such as reciprocating pump, rotary pump, steam ejector or
air pumps etc.
 Work output from turbine decreases due increases in back
pressure.
 Also the presence of air increases corrosive action as the corrosion
depends largely upon the oxygen content.
 Condenser can be broadly classified on
the basis of type of heat exchange i.e.
direct or indirect contact condensers.

1. Direct contact type or Mixing type or Jet

condenser
2. Indirect contact type or Non-mixing
type or Surface condenser
3. Evaporative condenser
 Jet condenser: In jet condenser the steam to
be condensed and cooling water are
intimately mixed by breaking up of water in
the form of spray and allowing small sized
water particles to fall down through the body
of steam.
 jet condenser can be classified based on
arrangement of removal of condensate-
 (a) Low level jet condenser
 (b) High level jet condenser
 (c) Ejector condenser
Low level jet condenser:
 Low level jet condenser is the one which is
placed at low level such that vacuum inside
condenser draws cooling water into
condenser from river/pond/cooling tower.
 Difference between atmospheric pressure (at
which cooling water is available) and
condenser pressure causes flow of cooling
water from cooling water reservoir to
condenser.
High level jet condenser:

 High level jet condenser is the one which is

placed at a height more than that of water
and water is to be injected into condenser
using a pump and the condensate will flow
out of condenser because of gravity.
 Here no condensate extraction pump is
required, instead pump is required for
pumping water upto condenser inlet.
Ejector condenser:

 Ejector condenser has water jet discharging

through the series of guide cones which
guide steam on to the surface of water jet.
 Discharge of water through these convergent
nozzles causes partial vacuum due to
conversion of potential energy into kinetic
energy.
 Steam is injected in condenser with non
return valve in between and is condensed by
the mixing with cooling water. Condensation
of steam further increases vacuum.
Non mixing type or surface condensers:
 Surface condensers are the most common
types of condenser and offer great advantage
in terms of no contamination of feed water.
 In these condensers the steam to be
condensed and cooling fluid (water) do not
come in contact with one another, instead the
heat transfer occurs between two fluids
through surface in between.
Evaporative condenser:

 Evaporative condensers are generally used

where the availability of water is very poor.
 Water picks up heat from the steam flowing
through condenser coil and gets warmed up.
This water is recirculated by circulation
pump.
 Evaporative condenser is advantageous over
the surface condenser as the vacuum
maintained in evaporative condenser is not
very high and the water requirement is small.
 These condensers are generally used in small
capacity power plants where shortage of
water supply is there.
 In a condenser the vacuum of 71 cm of Hg is
maintained with barometer reading of 76 cm in
Hg. Temperature in condenser is 35°C while hot
well is at temperature of 30°C. The cooling water
is circulated at the rate of 800 kg/min and
condensate is available at 25 kg/min. The
temperature of cooling water at inlet and outlet
are 15°C and 25°C. Determine the mass of air in
kg/m3 of condenser volume, dryness fraction of
steam entering condenser and vacuum efficiency.
Take mercury density as 0.0135951 kg/cm3, g =
9.81 m/s2.
 Cooling tower is similar to the evaporative
condenser, where Water is used for cooling
warm Water.
 Water used for cooling becomes hotter after
extracting heat from condenser steam and
needs to be cooled down if it is to be
recycled.
 Cooling towers are preferably used where the
water supply is limited and cooling Water has
to be recirculated without being thrown out.
 Typical values for a 500 MW steam power
plant indicate 18×107 kg per hour of cooling
Water
Schematic diagram of cooling tower
 Type of fan used in Cooling towers

 Natural draft: The cooling tower may utilizes the

natural wind velocity for cooling the water. It is
made for small capacity only.

 Mechanical draft — Uses power driven fan motors

to force or draw air through the tower. Induced
draft — A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the
discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through
the tower. The fan induces hot moist air out the
discharge
  Wet cooling towers are those cooling tower where water
and air comes into direct contact.
 Heat rejected by the cooling tower to the environment
occurs by these mechanism-
1. Addition of sensible heat to the air
2. Evaporation of a portion of the recirculation water itself.
 Wet cooling tower calculation:
• Approach: This is temperature difference between cold
water outlet temperature and the wet- bulb
temperature of the outside air.
• Range (cooling range): the range is difference between
the cold water outlet temperature and the cold water
inlet temperature.
 The water is sprayed down
from section 1 at the top
over a large number of
baffles laid in the body of
tower.
 Air enters at A and is rushed
up with the help of a fan and
is exhausted to the
atmosphere at the B in a
nearly saturated state.
 Energy and Mass balance equation-
Energy In = Energy Out
HA+m1h1=HB+m2h2
m*(CptA +wahv )+m1h1= m’*(CptB+wBhv)+m2h2

where, m1= mass flow rate in

m2= mass flow rate out
wa= specific humidity of air at section A
wb= specific humidity of air at section B
m=mass of air at inlet
m’ = mass of air at outlet

And mass balance m1-m2= wb m’ -wa m

or, m2=m1-[wb m’ -wam]
We can calculate cooled water flow rate from above equation.
 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒∗100
Effectiveness=
𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒+𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑐ℎ

 There is always some water loss in the
cooling tower due to-
a) Evaporation
b) Drift
c) Blow down
 Water that evaporates leaves the tower along
with air in the form of water vapor.
 The evaporation loss is 1-1.5% of the total
circulating water flow rate.
 Drift is fine water droplets entrained and
carried by the air.
 Drift eliminator thus provided at the exit
of tower to minimize the drift loss by the
use of baffles.
 The drift loss is much less about 0.03%.
 To maintain certain solid concentration,
blow down is necessary from the cold
water basin at the bottom of the tower.
 The blow down loss of water is around 1-
1.5% of the total water flow.
 To replenish these losses, makeup water
(2-2.2% of water flow) is added.
 A dry cooling tower passes the circulating water
through finned tubes over which the cooling air is
passed.
 All the heat rejected from the circulating water is
thus sensible heat to the cooling air.}A dry-air
cooling tower can be either a mechanical draft or
a natural draft.
 It has the advantages of being less expensive to
maintain and not requiring large amounts of
chemical additives and periodic cleaning, as do
wet towers.
 Main disadvantage is that they are less efficient
than wet cooling towers.